What did you make of the game and how pleasing was the result?
It was terrific, after the week we’ve had and you’re never quite sure how the players will be after a Thursday game, turning up to play on a Sunday. In the opening 15 minutes, I thought I’m not so sure. We showed great character, great mentality because we had a terrific win there in midweek. It was easier coming back to play at home than it would have been away but a terrific victory in the end. A hard-fought one, but a deserved one.
If that was Declan Rice’s final home match for the club, was that a good way to bow out?
Declan played very well today. He’s been playing well all season, he scored a really good goal. He played well, he’s a very, very good footballer.
What is the potential this season could be having sealed a safety and being in a European final?
Let me just take it back a little. When I took over we were avoiding relegation and thought it was a brilliant achievement not to get relegated. The season after that, we were challenging for the Champions League and we finished up sixth, so we were in the Europa League. I’m looking at the teams who have tried to do that this year and the levels are incredible levels. Then we went on the next season to be in Europe and finished seventh, only missed out on sixth because we didn’t win on the last day away from home.
The last two years have been incredible. Semi-final of a European competition but then trying to come back and play on a Sunday and try and get in the top half of the league is really difficult to do. If that was one of the bigger clubs who’ve been at it and know a bit about it you might say yeah, but our club’s not been in that position before.
This year, we’ve been in the Conference League and we’ve not started the season well but we made a lot of changes, tried to freshen things up and improve against if we could. In some ways it didn’t work exactly as we wanted but in other ways, getting to a final, it worked absolutely brilliantly. We knew we needed a bigger squad and different types of players. In one part it’s worked really well and in the other part it’s not worked as well as we hoped it would.
What did you make of Lucas Paqueta and his assist? Has his last couple of months shown what you were hoping for all along?
I think we’re beginning to see someone who we brought to make assist, score goals if he could. He’s looked much more settled. Still at times I think, don’t do so much, and we’re trying to show him that, but he’s got it in his blood. He always wants to make the hard pass, which is a good thing because it probably leads to a goal. We need to see it more but today I thought he was really, really good, exceptionally good and played a big part in a lot of things we did.
How pleasing was it to get Manuel Lanzini some minutes and a goal?
Somebody asked me a similar question earlier and I said, the biggest thing about Manuel Lanzini is that we were 3-0 down against Tottenham. Lanzini scores the third goal, we come back from 3-0 down. It may have changed the whole thing here for lots of reasons, the belief, how people saw us, how big a night it was, 3-0 down at Tottenham, Lanzini scores a wonder goal as you all know to make it three each.
Manny has just been really unfortunate this season, we’ve struggled to get him as many games as we’d like, but partly because we’ve not been playing as well, I think that’s been a big reason to that. But, to get him today and score was a really big thing and I’m pleased for him. He’s a really good lad, he’s been very loyal to me and the team at the time we’ve been here. A really good professional and I’m pleased for him.
Considering how the relationship between yourself and the players with the fans has been strained? How special of a moment was that post-match lap of honour?
Well, I think if you were a West Ham supporter and you didn’t applaud the team with what they’ve done and probably, in the last few months especially. We’ve beat Man United here, we’ve come from 2-0 down against Arsenal, we’ve beaten Gent, we’ve had to beat Alkmaar here and we’ve won again today. So, I have to say today, if you’re a West Ham supporter, there’s nothing you can do but applaud the team and how they’ve performed, because they’ve done remarkable. I don’t know, I think other some teams who have started very well but didn’t maybe finish the season so well, so I’m not sure how it works. Maybe sometimes, the last bit seems better, but I hope that we’ve got something that we can really give them to shout about in a week or so’s time.
Is Kurt Zouma okay after coming off at half-time?
Kurt is fine. I had in my head that he was probably only playing 45 minutes today, because I was debating do I play him, do I not, but I didn’t want to shut Kurt down, I want to try and keep him going and I could’ve easily taken him out of the team to protect him. I just feel like that was what I was going to do all along. Actually, Thilo came on and I thought Thilo done really well when he came on.
With Lucas Paqueta’s adjustment period, is it similar to when you bought Pablo Fornals to the club? Do you think you will stick with domestic recruits this summer or carry on abroad?
I think a lot of the teams are looking that way. If you have a model, which we’ve had some good models in Brentford, Brighton, people etc it’s for longer, they’re probably not absolutely signing for now, they might just be signing for a couple years down the line. Our model has more been when they come in, they need to be ready. Probably this year, we bought in quite a few players and for me personally, not so many of them hit the ground running. But I think Lucas has been the one who has really, really come through now and shown it. It’s a good time for us, because at the end of the season, we needed him. Making some goals, helping us get to a final and obviously, he performed really well today.
How pleased were you by the character and professionalism of the win?
That would’ve been my biggest worry today, naming the team. I was trying to look at how they were going to be and what we were thinking. We wanted to try and put out as strong as we could, but I knew I had a chance to change a couple of the players was probably in my mindset anyway. I think for the players’ mentality, such a big win, great euphoria. We travelled back, got back at three in the morning, we only train on Saturday morning before we come and play this game today. I think that was the bit where I’m saying ‘could the players get back on it quick enough? Could we get them ready?’
Apart from the opening 15 or 20 minutes, we did a brilliant job. The mentality to keep going and look, Leeds, for 15 or 20 minutes, had a couple of chances and maybe we could have been punished more, but we did just enough to give ourselves a chance.
A report today suggests some of your players might be facing a UEFA charge due to the clashes with AZ Alkmaar fans. What is your response to that?
I can’t see any problem, to be honest. I work with UEFA on the technical stuff and I don’t think we’ll have any questions asked about that, that’s my own opinion.
